In recent years there has been an ever increasing trend towards safer and sustainable detergent compositions. This has led to the development of alternative complexing agents, builders, threshold agents, corrosion inhibitors, and the like, which are used instead of predominantly phosphorous containing compounds. Phosphates can bind calcium and magnesium ions, provide alkalinity, act as threshold agents, and protect alkaline sensitive metals such as aluminum and aluminum containing alloys.
Other corrosion inhibitors include silicates, such as, sodium silicate. Sodium silicate has a tendency to begin precipitating from aqueous solution at a pH below 11, thus reducing its effectiveness to prevent corrosion of the contacted surfaces when used in cleaning solutions having a lower pH. Additionally, when allowed to dry on a surface silicates form films and/or spots which are visible and they are very difficult to remove. The presence of these silicon containing deposits can affect the texture, appearance, and on cooking or storage surfaces the taste of the materials that come into contact with the cleaned surfaces.
It is an object of the invention to address at least one of the above problems and/or to offer detergent compositions with usage and/or environmental benefits.